Titus Burr Carrier First Impressions

Grinders are one of the keys to exceptional espresso. Discuss them here.
NYFilter93
Posts: 86
Joined: 4 years ago

#1: Post by NYFilter93 »

We recently upgraded to the Titus burr carrier on our 2015 EK43. I had previously sanded the chamber and hoped that this would achieve close to perfect alignment.

As soon as the carrier was installed and grinder was calibrated, I brewed a batch brew using our same parameters as before (10.7, 125 grams of coffee to 2,000 mL of water)

The TDS and extraction % was the same as the old carrier, but the flavor was much different. It had slightly more clarity, but tasted stronger and slightly harsh.

The next day we cupped our production roasts and noticed all the coffees tasted harsh and flat. Again, the TDS and extraction came out the same as with the old carrier

I don't think the new carrier is causing the coffees to taste like this, but rather the carrier is exposing flaws in our roast and making it obvious that we were overdeveloping our coffees. Alternatively, we now need a lower brew temperature to accommodate for this change.

Has anyone had similar results when they first got their Titus carrier?

Acorazza
Posts: 41
Joined: 7 years ago

#2: Post by Acorazza »

Have you tried grinding a little coarser. From my understanding, the Titus carrier has a slower feed rate would should help the EK grind a touch finer which helps most in the espresso range but it may also be moving the entire grind range a little finer. I just installed one as well last night but haven't drank much coffee on it yet so I don't really have much more input than that.

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NYFilter93 (original poster)
Posts: 86
Joined: 4 years ago

#3: Post by NYFilter93 (original poster) »

We did but got the same results. Also the extraction % and TDS was the same as the previous burr carrier at the same grind setting

Acorazza
Posts: 41
Joined: 7 years ago

#4: Post by Acorazza »

Was the draw down and brew time the same matched to how it was with the old burr carrier?

NYFilter93 (original poster)
Posts: 86
Joined: 4 years ago

#5: Post by NYFilter93 (original poster) »

Yes. Also we tested in a batch brew.

We did just cup from another roaster and had high extraction and no harshness. So we think it's our roasts. The new carrier just made the issues more obvious.

Acorazza
Posts: 41
Joined: 7 years ago

#6: Post by Acorazza »

That is interesting. I'll have to do some experimenting and see how the carrier effects my brews.

malling
Posts: 2900
Joined: 13 years ago

#7: Post by malling »

With Titus carrier the thread is more fine then original so the grind setting doesn't result in a 1:1 as the beans are feed slower. But yes better alignment and more unimodal typically means it get clearer and more in your face for roast defects and roast mistakes as well, so if you overcompensate a roast for grinder problems that could well have that effect although I would not normally expect such a difference unless the grinder was really poorly aligned prior.

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iyayy
Posts: 254
Joined: 2 years ago

#8: Post by iyayy »

dont have a titus but i seems to read and see titus carrier design feeds beans slower, this has been known to affect grind distribution big enough to affect pourover and espresso brew time.

presumably, what used to be 70% less extracted + 30% overextration balance in the coffee/puck becomes 80% under + 20% over.
these ratio of good + bad has been moved so that most of the cup will be more of the good part, hence those smaller bad parts will be more noticeable since ur mouth is flooded with a lot more of good stuff.

its like eating donuts after sipping a strong black, the donut will taste much sweeter. here is the opposite, the balanced stuff makes the small bitter stuff taste more bitter. a relative difference of taste contrast so to say.

NYFilter93 (original poster)
Posts: 86
Joined: 4 years ago

#9: Post by NYFilter93 (original poster) »

malling wrote:With Titus carrier the thread is more fine then original so the grind setting doesn't result in a 1:1 as the beans are feed slower. But yes better alignment and more unimodal typically means it get clearer and more in your face for roast defects and roast mistakes as well, so if you overcompensate a roast for grinder problems that could well have that effect although I would not normally expect such a difference unless the grinder was really poorly aligned prior.
That's interesting cause our grind setting was exactly the same for our batch brew and cuppings. Only change was our espresso setting went from around 2.3 to 3.3. The TDS for batch brew and cupping was the same before the after the change.